New investors are often discouraged by the limited level of interaction and engagement available through websites and other investment tools provided by the financial institutions. While the discouragement may result from a general lack of interest in investing, real or perceived barriers can prevent these new investors from fully understanding the composition of their investment portfolio and the various investment opportunities provided by their financial institutions.
In many instances, the barriers result from a new investor's inability to connect a daily decision, such as a purchase of cereal or bathroom tissue at the grocery store, with a performance of a security held within his or her investment portfolio. For example, an investor may regularly purchase Ben & Jerry's™ ice cream, but may be unaware that his or her investment portfolio includes stock of Unilever™, which owns Ben & Jerry's™. The complex nature of financial instruments commonly held in investment portfolios (e.g., mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs)) further complicates the linkage between the investor's everyday purchases and a performance of his or her investment portfolio. Moreover, even assuming the investor could appreciate the impact of an everyday purchase on an investment portfolio, the investor would be challenged to monitor this impact over time due to the constantly changing composition of the investment portfolio and to changes in the corporate structure of manufacturers of consumer products.